When working on construction projects in suburban Beijing some years ago, Chinese architect Liang Jingyu was intrigued by the ground-breaking ceremonies at which people would clang gongs or beat drums.
He later read that such activities dated back to ancient times and often lasted up to three days.
He further found they were held to alert the animals that inhabited the area.
"It was like giving them time to leave the place before people began to build," he says.
"If a lot of us still revered nature, our world and life would look quite different," he adds.
A revival of traditional values and ancient wisdom in daily life is what Liang hopes to achieve at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition from May 28 to Nov 27, an event held under the framework of the Venice Biennale.
The 47-year-old, who lives and works in both Beijing and Vancouver, is curating China's national pavilion at the Magazzino delle Cisterne in Italy.
The pavilion called Daily Design, Daily Tao is in keeping with this year's exhibition theme, "reporting from the front".
Alejandro Aravena, a Chilean exhibition curator and a Pritzker prize-winning architect, says the theme is to show that the advancement of architecture is "not a goal in itself but a way to improve people's quality of life", and it is to be tackled on many fronts.
For Liang, the lost fronts are what a lot of Chinese have sacrificed for a modern cityscape: self-esteem, happiness and social equality.
He says it is a pity that extravagant, crazy consumption is what Chinese tourists are known for globally, while Chinese traditional values are against an unrestrained lifestyle that causes waste, pollution and damage to the surroundings.
"We should reduce waste, not manufacture more. We need to stop contaminating air, water and food when we seek larger apartments, more high-tech products and faster transportation."
Liang has chosen nine architects, designers and architect groups to show their works at the pavilion, in an effort to provide solutions for developmental issues in both cities and the countryside.
